Rogues: How to RP Classes in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM

hey there scoundrels I'm Pruitt this is Jim Davis and you should all steel yourselves for the next pick in our RP class series it's a safe bet that it's rogues let's get to it on web DM all these scalpers out here watching us what ideas can they steal from us here what are they doing with their roads all the right amount of axe Oh wells and brakes what can they do with their roads well I have been quite honestly an awful lot right and rogue shares with fighter the distinction of being one of two of the most generic classes that are in fifth edition we've got some great classes with a lot of like strong cultural flavors and themes barbarian is one monks another paladin is one there you know they may come with this kind of cultural someone call it baggage others would call it opportunity but rogue is really one of those where it's like they're they're the theme and story of their classes like a specialist problem solver that uses skills to overcome their the the obstacles that they face and that's an awfully generic thing in concept right and so for a rogue player it really it's really gonna do them a lot of good to think a lot about how their rogue operates in the world what the place of that rogue in their world is how their past how their their connections to other people all of those things have made them a certain type of rogue that they are today and when we look at the subclasses of rogue we find that they run the gamut of all different kinds of niches that they can fill and and really is probably next to next to a class like the wizard or a moon druid one of the more versatile classes out there or bard those are versatile due to their special abilities and and their spells and like say the case of a wizard they're very versatile because of that I see like the rogue is being versatile conceptually they've gotten a lot of skills that their abilities usually mesh well with their skills and kind of form a nice synergy there they've got something for you know if your combat minded and want to play a really combat focused rogue there of options for that if you're looking for more of like an off-brand non-traditional type rogue there are options there a lot of the the flavor and the the thematic strengths of a rogue isn't gonna come from their class abilities necessarily but from how the player conceives of their rogue and and how they portray them in play so it's worth obviously thinking a lot about that starting off with a thief you know I in first season Sabre dice I wanted like I was like I'm playing a rogue it fit the dish let me make a thief named Robin steal there's only one thing you're really good there really only one but what I wanted to do is tether him in a different way it's not just a guy that breaks in because he likes stealing [ __ ] or you just want some money or whatever but he grew up on the streets and he wants to help others he you know wanted to do kind of the Robin Hood in a city yes and so like I thought you know I did a pretty good job of tethering him in his world right but not just being you know oh I just steal [ __ ] yeah and I think like considering that first off there's all sorts of different types of thieves it's one of those things where you can delve pretty deep and it's more than it's like pickpockets and and and beggars that are also you know part of the criminal underworld it's highwaymen and bandits and there's all kinds of like criminal activity that you could potentially get involved in thinking about if you are gonna go the criminal route am i a criminal or am i not then thinking about sort of where they fit in with all that is gonna be a big part of your rogues background and how you portray them i I think that it's worth pointing out that not every rogue needs to be a criminal and not every criminal needs to be a rogue that's obviously why there's a background and a class that separate the two but the rogue has that kind of baggage from it a thief the thief subclass in particular does imply a certain kind of criminality to it but you could easily also be a treasure hunter or a type of a specialist artifact finder or like using the thief archetype that sort of fits within it as well and kind of gives you a different way of portraying sort of the same in class more Laura Croft more Laura Croft or even Indiana Jones things like that just because it's like oh yeah I can put those skills to good use elsewhere and not necessarily you know robbing people of their valuables and and the like although that's very fun and some people you know they don't need those valuables so the Rogues there to ease them the burden of having to have all that well the weight of all that wealth just like let me just help you out looks like your backs going out give me those chains creating a rogue character it's gonna be very important for you to have a strong theme for your character in mind when you're creating them in order to provide that concept of that theme to an otherwise very versatile blank slate of glass like the rogue is so whether you're talking like arcane trickster are they you know more of a Great Mouse or type where they were on the path to studying wizardry and some event of some kind pushed them into roguery yeah and they maintain a sort of connection to their arcane past through the little bit of dabbling that they do but for the most part they are thoroughly over here as a swashbuckling rogue type who really only dabbles in the magic to to get what they want or is there perhaps a whole other organization out there that trains arcane tricksters as literal spell thieves people that go in and steal magic they know enough about it to get into trouble you know maybe the arcane trickster is that artifact finder that we're talking about dancing the little bit of magic that they have to seek out magical items detect them help identify them sell them on the market has the magic to get get in and past a lot of the defenses that these places have thinking of a like a wizard that trains kids you have to be arcane tricksters direct fine things but that's more it we'll get to that that's a benefactor oh sure sure sure yeah but I mean like how different is that from like I mean an assassin right you go up and you talented mr. Ripley people figure out who they are whatever take them over kill them take their life or somebody in their life of the mark that you're after or no but that's that's a whole different thing than an arcane trickster or thief it really is it really is a whole different thing and and like let's take like the other type of generic class the fighter for a second and like their subclasses are very thematic very flavorful and depending on which one you choose is going to inform a lot about what kind of fighter you are but at the same time the core identity of the fighter all of the attacks the skill with weapons the ability to just you know where there's second wind or action surge and like you see those representing your training as a warrior those are like core to the warrior and will be present in all of all different types of warriors and while the rogue has a core set of skills that all rogues will have really do feel like their subclass more strongly flavors that character then then say the fighter with their subclasses that's just my personal opinion so I think like assassin is one of those where it's very different than an arcane trickster the skills that you're really good in and the skills that you might need are maybe different maybe similar but the assassins over here first off they're one of the ones one of the roads there tend to be a better in combat than others certainly do a lot of damage if they get the drop on an opponent but they're also good at infiltration and thinking about those things how did your character learn that was there an organization or were they on their own is it an organization that provides continued assistance to them or once the rogues are out on their own they're sort of out on their own yeah you know Assassin's Guild Slayers Brotherhood's things like that that you know when someone needs an assassination to be attempted they have contacted the contact the professionals which were the Assassin's Guild might come in or something like that like those sorts of questions you know provide the fodder for you know interesting interesting roads yeah and then get to the the rogues that you don't really at least we in the games I played haven't seen as much of the mastermind like I love the idea of a mastermind robe like he just kind of knows everything like an info broker or something like that yeah Chad OEM pro broker or a mysterious sort of figure behind the throne and in some respects you know you could say well it wouldn't a bard do better at this like wouldn't like a college of whispers or a college of lower bar be better at the sort of powerbroker behind-the-scenes sort of thing than a rogue because those characters have magic and that might be true number one the rogue still has magic at their disposal there's a whole world of magical items out there that the Rogue is able to use and make benefit of and a lot of those will shore up some of those weaknesses the other thing though is that the Rogue is magic is sometimes a crutch yeah and magic is sometimes a weakness and there are plenty of ways to neutralize the effects of magic whether it's overwhelming a caster with counter spells and dispel magics or having some kind of anti magic field there are ways to neutralize the impact of magic on something and let's say you're trying to manipulate someone and you're making a lot of use of charm person and suggestion and things like that there will be a residual effects of that that others can detect and if you're trying to stay hidden you're trying to stay quiet and unassuming and not observed then you would probably fall back on more mundane skills that the use of them cannot be detected and the effect of them cannot easily be detected either and let's not forget that the real world is full of compl NT of non magical examples of mastermind robes that you could use people who are adept at manipulating others people who are adept at reading others yeah and and sort of gathering information from people perhaps without them knowing it and without them realizing they're revealing that information and and people who sit at the center of large webs of conspiracies and spies and things like that yeah there's your mastermind so the lad amir putin is a master I don't know that I'd go so far as to call him a mastermind just saying so let's move on to like like inquisitive like the inquisitive row what does that look like to you that's the lawman rogue to me yeah doesn't have to be could be a private investigator could be just a generic problem solver of some kind we've got an inquisitive rogue and a paladin of the crown and you know it's like Turner and hooch really old movie reference it reveals a lot to our audience where my mind goes for buddy cop movie the dog I see which is an inquisitive robe and that just moon druid that wound through it mudra that will not come back into human form it's like he's talking to him the whole time if I come back you witness that murder I really have to come back in here anyway yeah tango and caffeine going - thank you I was sitting the second you said that I was like no no it's freakin Sylvester Stallone and another guy I forget who anyway the inquisitive is one of those roads that I I'm really kind of excited to try to try out I like their kind of approach to fighting and how the way that it's described in the subclass reminds me a lot of the Robert Downey jr. Sherlock Holmes movies where he's like all right I see how this guys fighting I know what I'm going to do the inquisitive is is one of those rogues that seems to fight smarter not harder yeah and if that's the kind of concept you're going for you want someone who say intelligent clever quick-witted both of them and the mastermind if you don't want to fall back on magic and you don't want to be yet another highly intelligent wizard then these are two archetypes that you can turn to that are kind of non-traditional rogues probably not a criminal who's part of a Thieves Guild breaking into houses but you are skilled and you are using your skills to overcome obstacles and the inquisitive works as like I said a private investigator type who just sort of takes it upon themselves to be a troubleshooter and a problem solver or maybe they are a special agent of the throne the King has his stalwart knights and the Queen has her Queen's Guard who are trained in all manner of combat both arcane and physical but they really need a guy who can just get in someplace without having a teleport be invisible or disguise themselves they just know how to get in places they know how to find the things they need to find and you don't need to ask questions they will deliver results and they're not gonna be traced back to you that kind of thing right right right and and and also you have Scout like if you want to be kind of a little bit closer to like maybe like a ranger but not quite not quiet yeah the way you could do your urban a little bit you could do something like that yeah I like Scout cuz you get more expertise you get more expertise expertise but character concept wise the Scout is obviously a good stand-in for spell s Ranger but there's a lot of other different different concepts that it can fill like saying it could be like batting hunter of some type or someone that you know hunts other people down or that seeks them out you might be dealing with like a herald of some kind and this is someone who you know travels far far distances in order to say open new trade routes or to establish diplomatic ties with another you know another country or another people or something like that they are a skilled person who's at home in the wild and is not necessarily a warrior protecting civilization right that's what makes a ranger a ranger so the the scout rogue is just there at home in the wild and maybe their place there isn't to defend civilization and defeat monsters it's just to get through that wilderness as quickly as possible or as safely as possible maybe they work in conjunction with a ranger or Ranger Scout combo probably makes a very formidable team yeah out in the wilderness at the same time Scout has a very strong flavor associated with it and it's one of those where you want to lean into the archetype of being a skilled natural Explorer as opposed to a you know a warrior in the wilderness with a natural experience with naturist work right polar opposite from like a thief that wants to be unseen at the swashbuckler you are literally like swinging from chandeliers and look at me like taking people on one on one yeah that's a whole different kind of thing flashy you know ostentatious wanting to be seen wanting to be a distraction it's different than the typical rogue stuff right and I can kind of see perhaps a swashbuckler say forgoing expertise and stealth or even proficiency in stealth there's other things that you want maybe you're wanting to focus on athletics and acrobatics and you know you want that panache and flair that that comes from being a swashbuckling hero and you focus more on say social skills and and the physical skills and you leave the lock-picking and skulking into shadows for someone else yeah and you're here to do all the bad guys and swing from a chandelier and just have a rockin good swashbuckling funtime the swashbuckler is one of those archetypes that I I really want to try because it seems like it's a different such a different kind of rogue and then it probably plays a bit differently than say like said a thief or an assassin or something like that I probably see them as the most combat focused of all the rogues like assassin has obvious uses in combat yes I mean an autocrat is pretty nice it's pretty nice but the swashbuckler is one of those where all right I'm good on my own I'm good with a partner I'm in combat I'm here we're fighting and we're we're having a exciting adventurous time while doing it yeah and you can be a little bit more lighthearted perhaps yes your concepts there but you don't need to be necessarily the rapier wielding although you probably will use a rapier be honest let's be honest do list with the slash sleeves and the arming doublet and you know you could be a pirate or a sailor of some kind perhaps you're a performer like an entertainer of some sort you don't want to go College of swords or College of valour you're just like yeah my guy's a circus performer who knows how to fight you know maybe there a knife juggler or a sword swallower or something like that and a carnival but those skills you know become something more when they go out on an adventure it'd be a way to make money we haven't done a detailed breakdown with all of our class series but I think it was worthwhile for the rogue because there's just so much to cover and we barely scratched the surface for concepts no you're completely right but let's get into the RP hooks from Zenith ours yeah because I like these three of the the guilty pleasure the adversary and the benefactor I mean for a rogue someone who can get in and steal things if you have a guilty pleasure and you have the skill yeah to to exercise it like that's got to be just like oh my god right yeah and so this is one of those things where I think the playing of Dungeons and Dragons as a game sometimes gets in the way of the narrative that you want to have about the game so an example of this would be hyper-rational characters either as player characters or as NPCs because we know we're playing a game we're gonna avoid all the stupid mistakes that that people make we're not gonna get tempted by this that and the other thing we have a goal in mind and we're gonna do it now of course players there's plenty of things that tempt them and distract them and etc that's as players of the game but I'm talking about like from a pure character motivation perspective having a guilty pleasure having something that's a hidden weakness an irresistible temptation for your character means that the dungeon master now has something they can use to introduce a complication because otherwise your characters just gonna be like yeah I make my stealth role I'm gonna stack as much stealth as I can gonna try to hook myself up but the past without trace maybe get a little advantage action on my stealth I'm gonna roll up in there and you can easily hit stealth numbers in the low 30s that way you're a ghost wherever you are and it's easy to sort of portray yourself as just this profit-driven I'm gonna steal everything that I can kind of thief the guilty pleasure introduces something that the dungeon master can say like well I kind of want you to act not in your best self interests right now yeah I kind of want you to make a mistake yeah that's not the result of a bad die roll right you know yeah it's it's more of like you're in a tavern and your guilty pleasures if you see unattended money a session is nine-tenths of the law who cares that that was someone leaving a tip for the bartender Yeah right no this is where you wanted to be an arcane trickster you just you know falls through the floor rolls on I'm not doing anything over here don't mind me your guilty pleasure could be you know a certain type of companionship or person maybe you just cannot resist getting in an argument with someone and you seek out other arguments and and your character is constantly getting in drunken debates at a tavern you know potentially blowing their own cover let alone whatever else it is that the rest of the players doing maybe it's an object of some kind they can't help but take jewel or they just have a thing for silver yeah and they can't let it go go by maybe it's they've got a thing for redheads or something and no matter what it is they just can't let a redhead passing by even though the barmaid is married to the bartender they're still flirting with the redhead yes yes what still gonna get defenestrated sure you get thrown out that window so it introduces complications and you can start to blend these things together if the guilty pleasure of a rogue is a certain type of person or just like I really can't resist a redhead then maybe you're super sly totally awesome thief rogue well maybe she runs into a devastatingly handsome redheaded adversary oh who she conflicted about it's like well I he is he opposes me in my goals but I just am drawn to this person I get lost in those eyes easin even as he's about to stab that dagger right into my heart yeah like that's a complication that you you've now I mean that's a goldmine to hand to a dungeon master something like that yeah so your adversary are they a lawman are they an agent of the authority of law are they a militia member are they a sheriff or a bailiff of some kind a constable those are sort of medieval esque law persons that you can use or are they like a wandering judge a magistrate of some kind that just your your rogue just cannot seem to shake and maybe it's not in their way yeah and maybe it's not even like your rogues like a hard-bitten criminal or anything but they are roguish right they're a little bit outside the bounds of conventional society and they're just you know misunderstandings a misunderstanding judge yeah I don't know what to tell you but here I am yet again in front of your travel in court yeah and the judges like nobody's ever seen anything but they just know that I see you you're always there withdraw it is there that things are missing yep and I've been to four towns yep and those are the two things that are those are the two things yes is there adversary someone from their past yeah is someone that they already know or is their adversary someone that they don't know and and they have a hidden person in their lives who are throwing obstacles in their way or thwarting their plans without quite knowing it and uncovering who that adversary is might reveal information about the character maybe someone from their past that they didn't realize or someone from their future that they are destined to sort of interact with or or cross paths with right or as you blended the first two let's blend the second two what if your adversary is your future adversary is your current benefactor right right right so this this could be one where you're dealing with like a Walter White Gus situation where yes right now we'll give you the lab equipment and access that you need but through paranoia because we're all criminals here and crime breeds certain kind of paranoia yeah we can't help but eventually cross paths with each other because you're a egomaniac and and and you know a danger to everyone around you and I'm just a respectable criminal businessman trying to maintain my criminal enterprise yeah and that's the kind of conflict that you can interact with you can say yeah my adversary is a future adversary right now there have been a factor but at some point perhaps they expect certain something that comes with their beneficence and it's sort of like yeah we'll give you aid we'll give you assistance we'll give you a safe place we'll give you access to a fence we will give you the things that you need to ply your trade particularly if your benefit benefactor is like a part of a criminal organization themselves our viewers should return or check out for the first time our evil organizations show where we kind of go really into depth about like Thieves guilds and criminal organizations and stuff you know if you have a rogue that is a criminal that or is involved in crime it's worthwhile to think about the the criminal organizations in your region and if they are a benefactor to your rogue what strings come attached with that are those strings onerous and burdensome than the rogue wishes to you know to divest themselves up or is it something that they see the benefit of it now but as the campaign progresses and goals shift and of course the NPCs are dynamic what they want out of the relationship is going to change so that eventually it does become an adversarial relationship and those bonds of fellowship that they once shared are broken and all the more tragic because of some misunderstanding or something like that to return back to rob and steal like after after the events of season 1 a saber dice like he basically is now kind of the benefactor in two regards to the children of briar patch house right because you know his alter ego Jiraiya you know provides the the financial support for the orphanage and everything but then he notices certain kids who have a skill for the the stealthy arts uh-huh and that's when Robin still finds them right mask up hood up yeah I will teach you you know I don't know who that is I don't know that it's the same person though but they have him in their lives all the time watching and training right and so that's another way to do it it's another way to do it and perhaps your benefactor was the person who trained you in the roguish arts yeah right maybe the assistance that they provided you wasn't monetary or property or shelter from the law or something but was just like listen kid you need some skills to survive on these mean streets your H in background rogue someone trained them perhaps number haps they're naturally taught and just like life on the streets taught them the skills that they needed to survive against the fact that you get skills with a background but the the benefactor can be therefore to sort of provide a context for the rest of it and maybe there's a mentor apprenticeship relationship with the rogue where an old man who you know appears as a beggar and the group of street urchins and other beggars and things that surround the beggar King provide a sort of information network and funnel money and you know location on stolen goods and all sorts of things that the Thieves Guild wants to maintain Court relationships with it so like once you start building up these relationships who does your benefactor know who is there anyone else that they are also a patron of those sorts of things start to build a web of NPC relationships that when one thing happens to it and you can plug on a strand here as a dungeon master you can look at that web of relationships and see how those in those actions will ripple outwards and affect the player characters and once you start getting enough of those things going and NPCs start reacting to events in the setting and they start being proactive and the player characters pick up on these things then all of a sudden the world feels much more richer much more alive much more in motion as opposed to static until the player characters talk to an NPC with a question mark over their head right yeah yeah do you or do you not steal from the pot from your own party you are who you or do you not yeah that's a good question I think there are circumstances where it is warranted yeah and whether it is under the guise of I'm just playing my character type an attitude which is not always bad there are some groups and and people that trust each other that they understand that the the actions of the characters don't necessarily reflect the behavior on the players part it might be appropriate I would caution against it as a default there are a lot of players and there are a lot of players out there who play with groups of people they might not know very well or maybe even complete strangers if they're playing it sort of a pickup group in their game store or something that you don't want to do things that could be perceived as sort of jerkish or antisocial or like going against the what's good for the group yeah kind of thing it's not outside the realm of possibility there are certainly circumstances where it allows but having the kind of like rampant kleptomania as as exemplified by the kinder for instance yeah where it's just like oh I found this in your pocket you obviously didn't want it or otherwise you wouldn't just have it unsecured in your pocket yeah you know if you really wanted it you would have been holding it and using it all the time yeah yeah yeah something like that like that kind of rampant kleptomania is I wouldn't put up with a lot of that if any role player but like let's say that the party finds an object that they are that multiple people in the group have an interest in and they have a selfish interest in them for maybe it's a magic item maybe it's a special object that grants certain powers or something like that depending on the group I might let a rogue player say like yeah I'm going to attempt to steal this if I think that everyone involved will be able to handle it well with the trust that if it if if one player feels like hey man that really wasn't cool like I thought this magic on it was mine I'd rather not have to worry about my fellow players stealing from me in the middle of the night then that's something that number one you've sort of handled both out of game but if it seems like it could be interesting or the players are on board for it or that they will handle it maturely in-game then I might let that play out yeah see what happens I know that the the current season of critical role there's been a lot of that yeah as examples of this I was gonna bring that up about not and Ford and the letter this is all around like episodes 11 and 12 ish of the new season or critical role there's a lot of stealing of letters and people keeping magic items that they should be sharing with the party that's going on yeah it's an example of that and obviously we're watching a group of players who have an understanding of kind of narrative techniques and what makes for an interesting story and they're also all friends with each other and so you're looking at an exceptional group of role players in that respect yeah but there are many exceptional groups of role players most of them don't have TV cameras that they play in front of I don't want to give a blanket you should never do X for that it's just be careful and you have the default is probably like yeah you really shouldn't steal from the party yeah if you do it too much what it does is and especially if you're good at it if you're good at it because then at the table you have players who are getting frustrated because their characters aren't seeing what you're doing yeah but they have full knowledge of that happening right well I had no recourse but in real life to be pissed off yeah and it will result in some very upset players it some passion that let the passive aggression ensue like I said it's in the same vein of like extreme kleptomania there are some rogue players look at this guy over here who love to steal things and they want to go on solo adventures to steal things and they like the idea of like being a character that sneaks in places and discovers things hidden while they're by themselves and keeping those treasures for themselves and like that appeals to the rogue player and out a brief tangent there is a conflict at heart within the rogue as a concept which is that this class along with the Ranger really work best when they're alone right and they and that's a problem in a group game like Dungeons & Dragons you see the same experience in a system like say shadow run with a you know a Decker who are a hacker who enters into the computer system and hacks away while the rest of the players just do it along their character sheets or a rigger who plugs themselves into their vehicle and has this whole big scene where they're driving their cybernetic vehicle well everybody else just just in the passenger seat and it's the same way with like a rogue a rogue that's sneaking out ahead of the party to scout and OU and finding traps and opening doors and things like that is engaged in the solo activity in an otherwise group games it coincides with like the bard in the social aspect yeah yeah they're the face they're out there talking to people get information well the road you know it's more about everybody knowing the part that they're playing running okay with that yeah I'm being okay with that and this is why I tend not to focus so much on individual moments within a role-playing game and instead look at the campaign as a whole and at any given session and it may be any given moment to moment scene to scene in a role-playing game there's gonna be people who have a spotlight on them there's gonna be people that are their skills are more relevant or their character abilities are more relevant and you might have a player who finds themselves very often sitting it out but there will be moments in which that player has a chance to shine we hope right that's the end goal yeah and some players need encouragement and some players don't pick the right class for the kind of character they want to play etc etc the player of the road needs to know that sometimes they are going to have the spotlight on them and that's appropriate they should keep those moments brief and and meaningful and not you know dawdle a lot and things like that not a lot of that's in the dungeon masters hands to pace the game there are other times where the rest of the players need to go okay this player needs to have their they're kind of fun we'll get back to the group so it's a part of Dungeon Master hang in both knowing yourself as a Dungeon Master and knowing the group you're playing for to understand where the spotlight needs to be when it needs to shift and how you should pace your game yeah because obviously everyone's a different issue you know it's worth it for the rogue player to know how they're gonna handle these situations at a time but it's also worth it for the dungeon master to kind of think about what this lap what'll happen you know with the rogues in the party so one of them thinking of is like running afoul of the wall you know a rogue player because just given the nature of the class and the nature of the type of play that it promotes the greater than likelihood chance of running afoul of the law and thinking about the legal structures and the law enforcement in your campaign is a part of world building that's important defines your setting I would point out that the two settings that I'm playing in right now and that are that are my current iteration of the homebrew neither one of them have the law in them there's no guard there's a town watch there's no judges both the great city of Warwick all a palentine and land between two rivers land between two rivers has the wardens who are solely concerned about whether or not those people over there casting a bunch arcane magic that's it and the the great city has private individuals who take it upon themselves to to watch over neighborhoods and things like that but there's no police force and official judiciary and that's really one of those things that's a personal preference of mine I find that having a strong legal system is a modernism that creeps into D&D just because we live in the 21st century and we expect [ __ ] like a police force and judges and things like that having a Dungeon Master thinking through what the consequences are for various crimes as well as it communicating that to the rogue player so that the rogue player knows like if I get into trouble here are the consequences it's one of those things you want to work out and perhaps as part of your rogues backstory you figure out what their relationship to cry and how they're going to you know how they're gonna relate to it but even then you know maybe they're they're not a criminal and they're just a carefree rogue who does what they want to do and is a loner and kind of a weird outcast and doesn't really fit in anywhere except this weird adventuring party of other social misfits and outcasts right right right yeah I mean you know in in someone like that like you know if they never really fit anywhere we're where would they have learned that where they have learned their skills I think that I like the mint or apprenticeship relationship for rogues maybe more so than Ranger I like it for Ranger as well there's something satisfying about the lone warrior in the wilderness taking on an apprentice but the road could be one of those where it's like the grizzled old pickpocket who's nearing you know nearing the end of their their career but you know sees promise and someone else and they need the skills that they need to survive for what run they run the Heart Attack grift right the old the old rope it takes a heart attack or becomes the help and while they're helping go through all those little hands in pockets that's one way the matter the mentor in apprenticeship but what if it's like a small team not quite a big organization like a Thieves Guild with a mafia dawn at the head of it and lieutenants and Capo's but it's a small team it's more like Ocean's eleven esque crime oh yeah right you know it's just little quirky individuals that all happen to kind of know each other and they've all got their particular skills that they've got that they sometimes get together for heists and otherwise just sort of generally watch each other's back an association of free individuals I can see is being a very roguish organization well held John wick yes is that all the meet those behind me yeah the criminal underworld in the John wick movies is one of those that's like ripe for inspiration in Dungeons & Dragons decentralized to a point with our or certain little little bastions yeah neutral ground uh-huh there's clearly like families and organizations within it but there's no like overall and pin esque figure like we could talk forever about like all rogue campaigns and criminal campaigns and running a Thieves Guild and we have videos on some of those but really the the take away from me with rogue play with with rogue characters and what their players should think about is you know where did they learn their skills how do they relate to the structures of authority that are around them do they work for them are they opposed to them what is their subclass and and and and its relationship to the rogue class abilities what how or how can they think about that in terms of their background where did they learn these skills what kind of environments did they grow up in who were the people in their lives that were important to them and then building out from there [Music] ba-ba-ba-ba was your any funny or embarrassing moments in gaming that you can think of time Prewitt didn't zip up his pants the whole time we were playing Andy and I didn't say yeah yeah the whole the entire time turns out he was doing it on purpose oh yeah just wanted somebody to look at it anyway funny I'll tell you what we still talk about the hole in the ground with the tarp like that was an amazing moment of just where the DM was describing something and all the players somehow collectively we're imagining the exact opposite of what he was describing like I don't know that I'm like we all conversed about it later we're like this is how y'all saw it right in there like yeah and the Jim's like no it was like this it was just I was reading sleeper text right like I wasn't like my own description it was the boxed text yeah avatar with a tarp and there's a hole somewhere there was a ball anyway it was I remember being a very frustrating attention because of that just like because it wasn't something that you could just that everybody just left alone and it wasn't particularly important if I thought it was just a minor thing you know you're supposed to move on and just like in my mind it lasted [ __ ] hours we just argued no it's like this no it's you know and yeah I recall that one there were early ones like early joshy games not my brother Josh but another Josh we played with where you do like this is the adventure where you need to go recover a wheel of cheese and like some of those games were fun I would say floating moment and recently in the Warhammer game we've talked about this in the podcast but the whole like sex cult being busted up by the Empire being busted up where where captain just pulls a gun out and kills his own Guardsmen and it was just like I'm sorry what and then just the aftermath of all that dude I laughed for so [ __ ] long okay and then just started turning my own Guardsmen into pink mist like well what are you gonna do there you go I will say the dandy story I've heard the most from Pruitt that he would describe as embarrassing was you jump or no was it no when you jump down the volcano yeah just about to say Alera which she's gonna have a rebirth in Warhammer this starting this Wednesday at 3 p.m. central on and kind of replaced which but yeah she thought it was a I thought it was a chimney shoot going down to like the forages and I was gonna be all like brew noir and like escape a fire giant like getting a little fire damage and then hopping out and getting free but no it was a lava shoot so long shoot so you know good times I just I still remember Jim going so you're you're gonna jump in there and I'm like yeah yeah I you know I'm sure that was yeah that was an instructive moment I don't you know I'm different games that I mine are all like holy [ __ ] that was a bad game like they're all like after the fact like getting home like what in the [ __ ] happened that game was so bad like either pacing or engagement with the players or just like you know those games were you damning and just like no one gives a [ __ ] and you're like why the [ __ ] am I even here those are games that are just like that you know that for me resulted in a lot of soul-searching and and ultimately like upping my game as a DM and and you know trying something different but like they're they're not like pleasant memories through just like geez this was a bad game yeah

Channel: Web DM

Views: 177,076

Keywords: Dungeons, Dragons, Role, Playing, Tabletop, Game, 5th, Edition, 5e, Web, DM, WebDM, D&D, DND, Web DM, GM Tips, DM Tips, how to dm dnd, how to play dungeons & dragons, rogues, rogues dungeons and dragons, rouge, rogue dnd, rogue, rogue 5e, how to play a rogue, how to play a rogue in 5e dungeons & dragons, how to rp, how to play a rogue 5e, rp, roleplay, role playing games, inspiration, inspiring, character, 5e character creation, dungeons and dragons, dungeons & dragons

Id: NnaF4aIZDTU

Length: 42min 2sec (2522 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018